Council of Agriculture Chairman Lee Chin-lung (李金龍) has tendered his resignation twice over the past two days, but will stay on to take responsibility for the Alishan train crash, Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday.
"The premier didn't approve Lee's resignation because the accident didn't result from faulty decision-making by Lee but from careless execution," Lin quoted Premier Yu Shyi-kun as saying yesterday.
Yu made the remark during a closed-door meeting where he listened to the briefing on the accident presented by the agriculture council, interior ministry, health department and defense ministry.
According to Lin, Lee tendered his resignation, both verbally and in writing, twice since the accident took place on Saturday.
Instead of quitting, Lin said, Lee should focus on how to prevent similar accidents from happening again.
Bowing to the public to express his personal apology, Lee yesterday also took the opportunity to dismiss media reports that the accident took place because the four-carriage train was overloaded.
"Records show that 1,073 tickets were sold that day. In other words, there was an average of 179 passengers in each of the six trains that went up the mountain that day. However, each train can carry 200 people," he said.
Lee yesterday also revealed the names of council officials who have been held responsible for the accident.
Huang Yu-hsing (黃裕星), director of the agriculture council's forestry bureau, was transferred to a non-administrative position. He offered his resignation on the day of the accident.
Huang's position will be temporarily filled by Lee Tao-sheng (李桃生), the bureau's deputy director.
In addition, Hung Ming-chuan (洪明川), director of the forestry management office in Chiayi County, will be transferred to a technician's position. Deputy director Yung Chao-shun (楊昭勳) will temporarily take over Hung's position.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei MRT is to begin accepting mobile payment services in the fall, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said on Saturday. When the company finishes the installation of new payment units at ticketing gates in October, MRT passengers can use credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, the operator said. In addition, the MRT would also provide QR payment codes — which would be compatible with Line Pay, Jkopay, iPass Money, PXPay Plus, EasyWallet, iCash Pay, Taiwan Pay and Taishin Pay — to access the railway system. Currently, passengers can access the Taipei MRT by buying a single-journey token or using EasyCard,
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